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Cora's Reviews > What It Takes: The Way to the White House
What It Takes: The Way to the White House
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"One of the things you realize fairly quickly in this job is that there is a character people see out there called Barack Obama. That’s not you. Whether it is good or bad, it is not you. I learned that on the campaign.� - President Barack Obama, speaking to Michael Lewis in October 2012
What It Takes is widely considered a classic among hardcore political buffs, campaign reporters and political scientists, on the level of Robert Caro's LBJ trilogy. Richard Ben Cramer has the less earth-shaking subject of the 1988 presidential election, and it might seem strange to dedicate 1100+ pages to a relatively unimportant election. (Cramer also largely omits the Jesse Jackson campaign, missing out on what's now considered a necessary precursor to Barack Obama's election.) But that's part of the secret genius of the book; this is a representative sample of a broader trend, and the larger picture of campaign season, in all its all-consuming insanity. A similar book could be written about 1968, or 2008, and the essential basis of the book would remain the same.
Cramer profiles six candidates: George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole for the Republicans, Gary Hart, Michael Dukakis, Dick Gephardt and Joe Biden for the Democrats. Cramer is a very insightful biographer, and I was impressed at how compelling he was able to make all six. An early pair of chapters recounting the World War II experiences of Bush and Dole, respectively, is a wonderful account of the American class experience during wartime. (Bush was a bomber pilot in the Pacific, and most of his wartime experience was pastries and volleyball games and the occasional terrifying bombing run; Dole was an infantry officer in Italy, meaning that he was basically target practice for German snipers and spent his free time eating cold beans out of a can and trying not to get trenchfoot.)
Cramer is also a very readable writer about campaigning, although if you thought his writing was purple I wouldn't argue. (So is Robert Caro, for that matter.) The first chapter of the book is about George Bush going to a baseball game to throw out the first pitch in 1986, which doesn't sound like much of a story. But in Cramer's hands it's both a blisteringly funny portrayal of the bubble (a Vice President doesn't go to a public place without the involvement of dozens of people for thousands of man-hours) and a sharp insight into Bush's personality. Cramer is even better with the big set pieces of the story, from Gary Hart being caught with Donna Rice (leading to a media siege that sounds frankly nightmarish) to the revelation of Kitty Dukakis' pill addiction.
What It Takes is about the American obsession with the Presidency, as seen by the people who aspire to the office. Americans, even very well-educated Americans, tend to reduce complex political situations to a very personalized story about the President. The current stalemate and broader institutional failure in Congress gets reduced to, Why won't Obama lead? Surely if he would lead, the votes would be there. Lyndon Johnson is elevated to a cornpone genius famous for 'the Treatment' that dominated all who came near him and through sheer force of will pulled the Great Society from Congress.
Of course, no real person is actually like that. So in Cramer's account, a presidential campaign is the art of seeming ever more like that person, by putting your whole life on display while simultaneously retelling it in mythic (and politically convenient) terms. (Think of Obama again, saying "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible.") Even for the healthy egos who run for President, the experience can be very alienating. Here's Dick Gephardt, on going into and out of the bubble:
Of course, the national press plays a large part in whether somebody looks like a President or not, and Cramer is none too kind to them: cynical but prone to credulous groupthink, obsessed with "character" while reducing candidates to a few simple traits. George H. W. Bush had a WASP's breeding, an near-obsessive capacity for cultivating friends, and played the good soldier for Ronald Reagan to secure the nomination in 1988. The media took this to mean that Bush was a wimp, and was surprised to discover (in the general election, in Panama, in the Gulf War) that Bush was a man who could not lose a competition, who would not stop until his enemy had been defeated.
And the only way to win is to give up everything in its pursuit. "In the end, we have only one nonnegotiable demand for a President, the man we hire to watch the world at our backs: that is totality. ... We will not allow anything to be put ahead of it, not friends, family, nor certainly rosy self-regard ... nor ease, restoration of self--forget it!" It's an indication of Cramer's achievement that this seems like a minor tragedy.
What It Takes is widely considered a classic among hardcore political buffs, campaign reporters and political scientists, on the level of Robert Caro's LBJ trilogy. Richard Ben Cramer has the less earth-shaking subject of the 1988 presidential election, and it might seem strange to dedicate 1100+ pages to a relatively unimportant election. (Cramer also largely omits the Jesse Jackson campaign, missing out on what's now considered a necessary precursor to Barack Obama's election.) But that's part of the secret genius of the book; this is a representative sample of a broader trend, and the larger picture of campaign season, in all its all-consuming insanity. A similar book could be written about 1968, or 2008, and the essential basis of the book would remain the same.
Cramer profiles six candidates: George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole for the Republicans, Gary Hart, Michael Dukakis, Dick Gephardt and Joe Biden for the Democrats. Cramer is a very insightful biographer, and I was impressed at how compelling he was able to make all six. An early pair of chapters recounting the World War II experiences of Bush and Dole, respectively, is a wonderful account of the American class experience during wartime. (Bush was a bomber pilot in the Pacific, and most of his wartime experience was pastries and volleyball games and the occasional terrifying bombing run; Dole was an infantry officer in Italy, meaning that he was basically target practice for German snipers and spent his free time eating cold beans out of a can and trying not to get trenchfoot.)
Cramer is also a very readable writer about campaigning, although if you thought his writing was purple I wouldn't argue. (So is Robert Caro, for that matter.) The first chapter of the book is about George Bush going to a baseball game to throw out the first pitch in 1986, which doesn't sound like much of a story. But in Cramer's hands it's both a blisteringly funny portrayal of the bubble (a Vice President doesn't go to a public place without the involvement of dozens of people for thousands of man-hours) and a sharp insight into Bush's personality. Cramer is even better with the big set pieces of the story, from Gary Hart being caught with Donna Rice (leading to a media siege that sounds frankly nightmarish) to the revelation of Kitty Dukakis' pill addiction.
What It Takes is about the American obsession with the Presidency, as seen by the people who aspire to the office. Americans, even very well-educated Americans, tend to reduce complex political situations to a very personalized story about the President. The current stalemate and broader institutional failure in Congress gets reduced to, Why won't Obama lead? Surely if he would lead, the votes would be there. Lyndon Johnson is elevated to a cornpone genius famous for 'the Treatment' that dominated all who came near him and through sheer force of will pulled the Great Society from Congress.
Of course, no real person is actually like that. So in Cramer's account, a presidential campaign is the art of seeming ever more like that person, by putting your whole life on display while simultaneously retelling it in mythic (and politically convenient) terms. (Think of Obama again, saying "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible.") Even for the healthy egos who run for President, the experience can be very alienating. Here's Dick Gephardt, on going into and out of the bubble:
No, they told you to be yourself, but they didn't want you to be like yourself. They wanted you to be like a President! They wanted you to be huge for them.
"I'll tell you the weird part--is when you stop. ... I was in Louisiana. Little town ... I don't think they'd had a Presidential candidate since, uh ... Millard Fillmore.
"So, I get there, and there's cops and motorcycles, and a limousine the size of Ohio. There's the Mayor, and marching bands ... and they treat me like the King of Spain.
"I do my speech, I get back in the limo, get to the airport ... and two hours later, I'm back in O'Hare ... hauling my suitcase off the place ... carry it half a mile ... I gotta wait in line for a lousy hot dog...
"All of a sudden, I'm back, I'm a ... a, uh..." He was hunting a word." "I'm a, uh... a shit-bum!
Of course, the national press plays a large part in whether somebody looks like a President or not, and Cramer is none too kind to them: cynical but prone to credulous groupthink, obsessed with "character" while reducing candidates to a few simple traits. George H. W. Bush had a WASP's breeding, an near-obsessive capacity for cultivating friends, and played the good soldier for Ronald Reagan to secure the nomination in 1988. The media took this to mean that Bush was a wimp, and was surprised to discover (in the general election, in Panama, in the Gulf War) that Bush was a man who could not lose a competition, who would not stop until his enemy had been defeated.
And the only way to win is to give up everything in its pursuit. "In the end, we have only one nonnegotiable demand for a President, the man we hire to watch the world at our backs: that is totality. ... We will not allow anything to be put ahead of it, not friends, family, nor certainly rosy self-regard ... nor ease, restoration of self--forget it!" It's an indication of Cramer's achievement that this seems like a minor tragedy.
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and so the would be presidential candidate sums up most voters experience of life! Yeah, its tough having to carry your own suitcase and having to personally queue to buy a hot dog.